If your fridge-freezer has developed a fault where the freezer has defrosted, or is not getting cold enough and it’s in a garage, and the temperature is very cold, it could just be that it isn’t suitable for putting in a garage..
.. A surprising number of fridge-freezers in the UK end up in a garage or in an outbuilding. However, did you know that many are not capable of running properly if the temperature surrounding the appliance drops too low?
When winter comes, many people find that their freezer starts to defrost. However, it’s also possible for unrelated faults to cause the freezer part of a fridge freezer to defrost or not get cold enough, so don’t automatically assume the cause is as described in this article
All refrigeration has what’s called a climate class rating, which states the minimum and maximum temperature the appliance is designed to work within. I believe the overwhelming majority of consumers have never heard of climate class so surely its the responsibility of retailers to advise customers about it when selling refrigeration?
Which fridge freezers can defrost in a garage?
It’s combined fridge-freezers. If a combined fridge freezer has only one thermostat (or sensor), which is sited inside the fridge section, it is likely to be affected by this problem. If the ambient temperature of the room it’s placed in gets to around freezing, then the fridge thermostat is likely to shut off. When this happens on appliances with only one thermostat the freezer also shuts off. If the temperature remains cold for several hours then the fridge thermostat will not come back on.
It doesn’t need to because inside the fridge compartment will be plenty cold enough. In really cold weather it is possible for the fridge thermostat to stay off for a long time. Whilst ever the thermostat for the fridge remains off the compressor will stop running and the freezer will eventually start to warm up, at least to roughly the ambient temperature of the garage, which although cold, is not cold enough for frozen food.
As a rule of thumb I would say that if you can set separate temperatures for your fridge and the freezer section I would assume there are separate thermostats controlling the freezer and therefore this issue shouldn’t affect your appliance. (Article continues below..)
What about chest freezers?
Chest freezers should not suffer from this specific issue because they have their own thermostatic control and do not try to control the temperature of two separate compartments. However, if the temperature in the garage significantly exceeds that of its climate class it can’t be guaranteed to work without any issues. Also, if there is little ventilation and or condensation it can cause premature rust and even damage to components inside. I have seen many chest freezers in garages over the years that seem to fair reasonably ok although modern ones may not be so well built.
Is this a bad design? – Problems below 10 degrees?
Manufacturers would say they design them to be installed in a kitchen. However, to me it does seem less than ideal to rely on only one sensor or stat to control two different parts of the appliance (just to save money). Many fridge freezers do have separate stats. As saving money is the only possible advantage I can think of it’s therefore presumably more likely to affect the cheaper range of fridge freezers.
Also, there are reports that many refrigeration appliances are not guaranteed to work properly if temperatures drop below 10 degrees centigrade. I would imagine many people have appliances in parts of their homes and even in some kitchens where the temperature can drop below 10 degrees during the night or – what about when on holiday in the winter when the heating may be left off or on low enough only to prevent freezing?
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If an appliance is installed in a kitchen and temperature drops during the night or holiday periods cause it problems I would say that’s a design issue. You cannot be expected to keep the heating on 24/7 to keep an appliance running. However, if installed in an out building or garage I would think you have much less of a claim other than why weren’t you asked at the point of sale where you would be installing the appliance?
What can be done about it?
A fridge freezer with only one thermostat operating inside the fridge compartment is not suitable to run in a particularly cold environments. If affected you need to either exchange it for a fridge freezer with two thermostats controlling the fridge and freezer independently, or swap it for a separate fridge and freezer, or you need to somehow stop the environment from getting below 4 °C (which is likely to be impractical).
Do I have any comeback if my fridge freezer doesn’t work in my garage?
The short answer is probably not, at least not with the manufacturer, you have placed it in an environment it is not designed for. If it was me I might be annoyed though that the person I bought it from did not enquire as to whether I intended to place it in a garage or not. I would argue this problem is in no way common public knowledge, but most retailers are well aware of it because they get called out to them all the time.
All manufacturers and aftersales engineers also know about this issue because they too get called out lots of times under guarantee and have to tell the customer there’s no “fault” on the appliance and it’s not covered under guarantee. Some might say it’s the responsibility of the shop you bought it from to advise at the point of sale that it is not suitable for fitting in a garage or other outbuilding because the companies (not necessarily individual sales staff) know that so many people place them there. I don’t know whether trading standards would agree or not.
At one time, Comet, one of the largest UK retailers of such appliances carried out a survey where they found that around 15% of call outs to fridge freezers were caused by them being placed incorrectly in a garage or another building subject to very cold temperatures. This being the case, I would have thought it common sense for all their sales staff to be instructed to ask any customer buying such a fridge freezer where they intended to site it but they never were.
This is not only in the customer’s interest but in the interest of the retailer as any customer affected by this problem is likely to be pretty upset about it. At the end of the day it’s unlikely that any retailer is legally obliged to check on these matters but personally I believe they should because it’s very common for people to site fridge freezers in their garage and they should know that.
If affected, is my appliance damaged, or will it recover if moved to somewhere warmer?
If the freezer is defrosting due to the room being so cold it switches off the thermostat inside the fridge – and the fridge freezer is only controlled with one thermostat in the fridge (no stat or sensor in the freezer) then no damage should be inflicted. The freezer has only stopped working because the fridge stat has stopped working. Once temperatures increase it should work normally again. However, make sure you don’t wrongly assume this is the cause of a defrosting freezer as of course faults can occur causing freezers to stop working too.
Could a fridge-freezer start to defrost in a kitchen during winter months if the heating isn’t on?
This question has been asked a few times and I am presuming yes, there could be a problem if you have a fridge-freezer with only one thermostat controlling both the fridge and freezer and you go away on holiday when its cold. I’m not sure how most people do it, but normally when we go away we leave the heating off but we’ve never gone away in winter. If you went away and didn’t leave the heating on low (say around 14 – 15 degrees) then potentially during prolonged cold periods if the ambient temperature in the kitchen drops low enough (around 0 – 4 degrees C or colder) the fridge thermostat or sensor is likely to shut off as the temperature in the fridge becomes cool enough.
This won’t be an issue for the contents of the fridge because of course it’s reached the correct temperature. But if the freezer compartment is also controlled by the stat inside the fridge then this will stop the freezer coming on too. Therefore if the temperature remained cold enough to not require further cooling inside the fridge compartment then freezer compartment will not get any further cooling and after sufficient time has passed will start to thaw out.
The chances are if this did occur then unless you have an appliance with a warning light or sound to indicate the temperature of the freezer has warmed up enough to adversely affect the quality of the frozen food you might not realise the food has partially defrosted compromising its quality.
My advice would be that if you think you could be affected then if any food inside the freezers seems a little off when you thaw it out to use then throw it away. If you do have a fridge freezer that sounds or displays a warning if the temperature has been compromised you should assume the food has been partially defrosted even if it is rock solid when you come back.
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Nutella: The problem isn’t the design of the thermostat but the fact they are saving money only fitting one thermostat to control two totally different environments – one needing to be between 0 and 5 degrees and the other needing to be -18 degrees. I don’t understand how anyone thought that was a sensible idea.
However, they seem to just about work as long as the temperature isn’t cold enough to cause the fridge thermostat to shut off and stay off for a prolonged period such as when sited in a garage.
I personally feel there is a legitimate argument for saying that fridge freezers controlled by only one thermostat (or sensor) inside the fridge are not fit for purpose when they stop functioning properly and allow frozen meat to partially defrost if the temperature drops below 16 degrees (or 14 or 10 depending on the climate class rating).
I say this because in very cold spells (such as now) the temperature in someone’s kitchen could easily drop and remain below 14 degrees if the heating breaks down, or if they are taking a winter vacation and the heating is left off – or only on frost setting (which only maintains a temperature of around 6 degrees). As it happens my father and mother in law have just returned from Spain where they’ve spent the last month. Like many pensioners they do this every year and the leave the heating off. During the last several days the temperature in their kitchen is likely to have dropped well below the 14, 12 or 10 degrees stated in the climate class so if they had an affected fridge freezer their food could have partially thawed out but they would be unaware.
The argument about having design faults when installed in a garage is less clear-cut because they can say they are only designed to use in a kitchen – although this clearly isn’t commonly known. However, it is commonly known to retailers all over the country that a significant proportion of their customers do install fridge-freezers in a garage – so IMO they have no excuse for selling any such appliance without inquiring where it is to be sited and advising that they are only suitable for a kitchen. Therefore you may have a good case for being misold if the problems you are having are due to the fridge freezer not being able to maintain the freezer temperature when the temperature drops.
You need to test this by seeing what your local Citizens Advice Bureau says on the subject – Search for your local CAB
What a pain this is…last winter we went to visit parents at Christmas and freezer bit of fridge freezer (Zanussi, less than 2 years old) obv not worked as food not frozen, grrrrr. This year, same thing again, double grrrr as got 2 small children and I like to freeze meals for them…along with all the usual suspects. We have a very small kitchen so moving it is not an option, sorry, its in a cold utility room…would putting one of those electric fan heaters make it work? I can afford to bin another load of food…
Thanks!
Kirstie: If the freezer is defrosting because it’s too cold and has this design “fault” then raising the temperature will stop it happening. The electric heater is going to cost you though if you need to run it all the time when it gets cold. Obviously you would need some form of heating with a thermostat.
Alternatively you could consider claiming that the fridge freezer is not fit for the purpose it was bought for because it defrosts when the weather gets very cold and you have only installed it in your home. You have up to 5 or 6 years to make a claim Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives us 6 years to claim for faulty appliances
However, it’s highly unlikely any retailer will accept this and will just fob you off. You would need to be prepared to take them to the small claims court.
I only wish I found this site a few weeks ago. We have had the same problem and we only bought the fridge freezer on 23/12/09. It is less that 3 weeks old and tried the mis selling line but got nowhere. I can’t get down the CAB until February but I am not expecting any joy. Like many people we were replacing a freezer which broke down. We now have a fridge freezer that can be used as a cupboard for nearly half the year! We are annoyed but there seems to be nothing that can be done.
Hello Andy: there isn’t anything in this article or comments saying nothing can be done, only that the chances are you’ll meet resistance if you try to claim it’s not fit for purpose but that doesn’t mean they are right. Trying to claim it’s a design fault is unlikely to succeed because manufacturers will say they are not designed to run in a garage, but as most retailers know (or should know) that people do put them in garages, and that people don’t know they can’t, they surely have a duty of care to advise customers to buy a different fridge freezer unaffected by the issue if they plan to run it in a garage.
If the sales person didn’t ask you if you were going to install it in a garage or advise you it must only be sited in a kitchen then I believe they are mis-selling this type of fridge-freezer if only out of ignorance. Whilst ever the thousands of people this affects just accept it they will continue.
The simple fact is that many people put these appliances in a garage. All the big retailers know this very well because their engineers get called out all the time in winter for this problem. If the service departments haven’t told the retail departments to stop selling these affected appliances to customers wishing to site them in a garage they are being negligent in my opinion.
Anyone with common sense can see that this is a proper issue affecting many people, and the retailers need to stop selling this type of fridge freezer to people wanting to use them in garages so they need to ask all potential customers where they plan to put the appliance. They never will until they start getting enough people refusing to accept it’s their fault and/or taking them to the small claims court.
Had no idea that my Beko fridge/freezer wouldnt work in the garage. I do now because Ive just had to throw away a whole freezer full of food !!!!!
If the freezer section is controlled by the thermostat in the fridge, if you rigged the fridge so that the interior lamp stayed on when the door was closed, would this generate enough heat within the fridge compartment to kick the thermostat into working ??? Or am I talking out of my bottom ??
Thanks
Martin
Just an update and a success (although tainted a little). Since we had a new fridge/freezer we got our supplier on the goods not being fit for use. The points we made were:
1. No-one asked us where we were going to keep it (bad sales) and they knew the problem existed.
2. When they installed it on 23/12 in a cold area nothing was said other than “there you go mate”.
After a great deal of arguing they agreed to take it back -20% restocking fee. A tainted victory but it is better than having a fridge / freezer that doesn’t work for a good few months of the year.
Good luck to anyone else trying to get justice.
Many thanks for your update Andy. I’ve been waiting for examples of how people have got on when dealing with this issue – successful or not. I think it shows retailers can’t really argue with the logic and the the facts you described.
There’s no doubt that engineers and service departments of the major retailers and manufacturers all know of this issue and come across it all the time. Either they don’t tell the retailing departments, or they do, but the retailers don’t advise their sales staff.
Either way it’s common sense to say they should start finding out exactly which models of refrigeration appliance will not work properly in a garage when it gets very cold and make sure they don’t sell those models to anyone planning on installing one in a garage.
I don’t believe any sales person would deliberately sell one of these products to someone knowing it will not work. The most likely explanation is they simply haven’t been told about the issue.
I suspect the reasons why they don’t get told is that when people find out about the issue via an engineer most must somehow either blame themselves and just accept that they’ve learnt a hard and expensive lesson or feel angry about it but don’t complain to the people they bought it from. I think retailers have to a great extent been shielded from consequences so they haven’t needed to change their practices.
If I understand fridge-freezer will work properly in the low ambient temp (plus 4 and higher) when one compressor and two independent thermostats are designed. One for each compartment provide adequate signals for right operation in freezer as well as in fridge
Yes Jan. Even if the temperature dropped below freezing it shouldn’t affect a separate freezer unit or the freezer part of a combined fridge-freezer with its own separate thermostat because freezers keep the compressor running until the temperature inside reaches -18 degrees.